Record Academic Spring for WLU Student-Athletes
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty University student-athletes capped a highly successful season on the playing fields with yet another record-setting semester in the classroom this spring.
The 454 spring sports athletes from the university’s 18 intercollegiate sports combined to post a 3.15 departmental GPA for the final semester of the 2020-21 academic year. Not only is that a record semester GPA for the athletic department, it marks the sixth consecutive semester Hilltopper student-athletes have surpassed the 3.00 mark as a group.
Overcoming the challenges of shifting seasons and constant testing while working through pandemic safety protocols and procedures, 16 of West Liberty’s 18 squads achieved team GPAs of 3.00 or better with 7 of them posting combined GPAs of 3.50 or higher.
That classroom success was matched on the field of play with Hilltopper student-athletes bringing home multiple team and individual conference titles. The wrestling and men’s basketball teams won Mountain East Conference and NCAA Division II Atlantic Region titles on their way to earning national tournament bids. The softball team brought home its second straight MEC championship and is preparing to compete in this week’s NCAA Regional while the men’s golf team just finished its sixth consecutive NCAA Regional tournament run.
Individually, several student-athletes achieved high honors at the NCAA regional and national levels with Hilltopper standouts also notching four MEC Player of the Year awards.
“I’m tremendously proud of our student-athletes for continuing to achieve at such a high level on and off the field,” athletic director Lynn Ullom said. “We feel it’s important to be a champion in the classroom as well as compete for championships in the arena. When you challenge yourself to do both and rise to meet that challenge, that’s a ‘win-win’ for all concerned.”
The athletic department’s spring academic totals are certainly impressive. Of the 454 student-athletes, 300 checked in with GPAs of 3.00 or higher, 200 were at 3.50 or better and 92 charted perfect 4.00s.
Putting those numbers in perspective, better than one in five West Liberty student-athletes achieved 4.00 GPAs during the spring with nearly half of them at 3.50 or higher. Altogether, more than two of every three Hilltopper student-athletes finished the spring at 3.00 or higher.
The women’s volleyball team once again led the way with a department-high 3.82 combined GPA. All 15 volleyball student-athletes blew past the 3.00 standard with 12 of them at 3.50 or higher and 8 notching perfect 4.00 GPAs.
The cross country team set the pace on the men’s side with a 3.64 combined GPA. Eight of the 16 runners hit 3.00 or higher with several near-misses while six achieved 3.50 GPAs or higher and four were perfect at 4.00.
Here’s a complete list of the Hilltopper teams that surpassed the 3.00 GPA mark during the spring: Women’s Volleyball (3.82); Women’s Tennis (3.69); Women’s Basketball (3.67); Men’s Cross Country (3.64); Women’s Cross Country (3.64); Women’s Track & Field (3.63); Women’s Soccer (3.56); Women’s Softball (3.53); Men’s Tennis (3.44); Women’s Golf (3.34); Men’s Basketball (3.27); Women’s Acrobatics & Tumbling (3.22); Wrestling (3.07); Baseball (3.07); Men’s Golf (3.07) and Men’s Soccer (3.05).